


Do you wanna build a snowman?

by winterune



Series: ShuAnnWeek 2020 [2]
Category: Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: Day 2 Snow/Rain, F/M, Fluff, Romance, Romantic Fluff, ShuAnn Week 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-07
Updated: 2020-04-07
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:54:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,081
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23535628
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/winterune/pseuds/winterune
Summary: Ren and Ann went for a walk in the park where snow had fallen and gathered on the ground.
Relationships: Amamiya Ren/Takamaki Ann, Kurusu Akira/Takamaki Ann, Persona 5 Protagonist/Takamaki Ann
Series: ShuAnnWeek 2020 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1692301
Comments: 2
Kudos: 14
Collections: Shuann Week 2020





	Do you wanna build a snowman?

**Author's Note:**

> Entry for ShuannWeek2k20  
> Day 2 prompt: ~~Rain~~ / **Snow**
> 
> I hope you enjoy :)

“Oh, wow, look at all this snow!”

Ren glanced to his side, where Ann was standing with her arm linked to his, eyes sparkling in delight. It had snowed heavily last night, and by the time Ren went to her house to pick her up, a thin layer had coated every surface from the ground to the rooftops—lampposts, store awnings, parked vehicles. Ann had gone to the door to greet him, all ready with her black overcoat, red scarf, and earmuffs. Her beaming face had made his own frozen cheeks warm into a smile.

The snowfall had stopped some time before dawn and the sun had broken free from the heavy clouds, but still, the temperature had dropped significantly and snow thick enough to leave deep footprints remained on the ground. Such was the scene they witnessed as they entered Inokashira Park. A blanket of white as far as the eye could see, broken occasionally by patches of brown or black. There were fewer people than usual, mostly people his age or families with young children out and about to play in the snow.

“It’s rare to see so much collecting on the ground,” Ann went on, breath clouding over, as she led him to the pile of snow under a tall leafless tree, its bare branches reaching up to the sky. When Ann left his arm to crouch on the ground and pick up a handful of snow, the warmth he had come to appreciate on his side was immediately replaced by the cold that pierced his bone, even through his layers of clothing, making him shiver.

The day felt colder than usual. He didn’t particularly hate it. He was just not fond of it. He would rather stay indoors and have a hot chocolate with a book to read or a movie to watch. But Ann had wanted to see the snow, so here they were.

“Hey,” Ann called, looking up at him. “Do you wanna build a snowman?”

“Snowman?”

Ann nodded enthusiastically. “But not like the normal ones. I wanna make that creature. That…have you seen that movie? That old anime movie. With the big, round, fluffy creature thing.”

Ren cocked his head to the side. He wasn’t following.

“I forgot its name…” Ann went on. “You know, the one where a little girl goes into the forest and meets the thing?”

“I’m still not following.”

“Ah, right, the one by Ghibli! The—the one with the…cat…bus?” She paused, then looked to the ground, brows furrowed. “That sounded weird.”

_ Cat bus? Ghibli? _ An image started forming in his mind. He had seen it when he was a kid. The movie with the small family moving to the countryside where they met a huge spirit in the neighboring forest.

“Totoro?” Ren offered.

“Right!” Ann exclaimed, head whipping up with stars in her eyes. “Totoro! God, I forgot that name for a moment there.”

“Yeah, that was a cute movie,” he agreed. He had only seen it once, on one of those days when his father wasn’t home and he had been alone with his mother. She would play a movie on the TV at night, and he would sit with her with a glass of chocolate or some midnight snack his mother cooked up.  _ My Neighbor Totoro _ had been one of those movies.

But the joy of discovering the name was only short-lived as Ann’s meaning finally dawned on him. “You want to make a Totoro snowman?”

He had probably expected her to shake her head or to shrug, saying something like, “Nah, I was just thinking it’d be cute.” But Ann was nodding aggressively, as though her life depended on this. She rose to her feet, with that bright smile on her face, and said, “Come on, it’ll be fun!”

There were no rooms for arguments. Not that he wanted to argue if it meant seeing her smile like that again.

*******

“So,” Ann said, from her spot by the pile, patting it down into form, “how do you make a Totoro snowman exactly?”

Ren, who had been gathering more snow into his arms, looked up from his task and found her staring expectantly up at him. He laughed. “What’re you looking at me for? It was your idea.”

“Yeah, I know, but,”—Ann turned her attention back to her work—“I’ve never actually seen a Totoro snowman.”

“Then where did you get the idea?”

Ann shrugged. “Just wanted to try something different, I guess?”

“Well, why not look it up on the internet?”

Ann’s eyes widened as though the thought hadn’t crossed her mind. She quickly brushed her hands against her coat before fishing for her phone in her pocket. “Let’s see…Totoro…snowman…”

Through the corner of his eyes, Ren watched as Ann began typing furiously on her phone. He couldn’t help but smile at the sight. Looking at her having fun always put him in a good mood, and it made him want to tease her a bit. 

Having gathered enough snow, he rose to his feet and went over to their makeshift snowman.

“Here it is!” Ann said, still looking at her phone. “Oh, wow, look at all of these. They’re so good! How do they even make these? Look, Ren—”

She looked up just in time as Ren reached their pile and opened his arms wide, dumping all the snow right above her head.

“ _ Ah—! _ ”

Her scream was cut short. Ann immediately jumped to her feet, brushing the snow away from her face in surprised, angry swipes. “ _ Ren! _ ” she shouted, indignant.

“Sorry.” He tried and failed to stifle his laughter. It wasn’t until she glared at him that he immediately covered his bout of laughter with a cough and a clearing of his throat.

But Ann was still frowning, and she crouched down on the ground and gathered snow into her hands.

“Hey, wait a—”

“You asked for this, Ren,” she said, and before he could prepare himself, she had risen to her feet and thrown the makeshift snowball at his face.

_ Oof! _

He looked away just in time and felt little shards of ice stinging the side of his face. He groaned. Ann immediately exploded in a fit of laughter.

He blinked once, twice, wiping his face then finding his fingers covered in a thick layer of ice. He stared at her, lips set in a deep scowl. “Well, that does it.” He quickly reached down for more snow.

“Wait, are we seriously doing this?” Ann said, already backing away one step at a time.

“You started it.” Ren carefully padded his snowball between his hands.

“ _ You _ started it!”

She ran just in time as the ball left Ren’s hand. It flew past her by several inches, landing with a thud back on the snow pile behind her. She squealed in delight and triumph at Ren’s missed attack.

As he watched her moving farther and farther away from him, he felt his feet moving on his own, and before he knew it, he was chasing after her. “Come back here!” he yelled.

But Ann’s feet quickly dashed through the white landscape when she realized he was hot on her trails. “No!” she screamed back. She was laughing and squealing every time she felt his snowballs zoomed past her or when his fingers were just inches away from her arm or her coat. When his attacks found their marks on her back or shoulder or leg, she would occasionally bend down to pick handfuls of snow to throw at him.

Snow sprayed everywhere. Neither of them cared anymore about creating balls and were just throwing whatever snow and ice they could get their hands on. It was then that he felt it—the laughter bubbling from inside him, bursting out uncontrollably as though a dam had broken free. 

When was the last time he felt like this? A carefree feeling with nothing weighting his shoulders and mind. No thoughts of his family, his school, or his life. Just him and himself, a seventeen-year-old boy, who was laughing his heart out with the girl he loved.

When he looked at her, Ann was smiling so wide, so bright, so free. Her laughter was like music to his ears. And when she met his gaze, time seemed to stand still and Ren forgot how to breathe.

It happened instinctively—his arm snaking around her waist, pulling her close. One hand brushed against her cheek to rest at the back of her head and in one smooth motion, he brought his lips down to hers.

She tasted of ice and salt with a hint of strawberry underneath. He felt her jerk in surprise, her body stiffening for a split second, before she relaxed into his arms. Her fingers splayed over his chest pulled at the lapels of his coat to deepen the kiss. 

A moment passed, then another, and another, before they finally broke the kiss with a gasp and a sigh and Ren rested his forehead on hers as they looked at each other and smiled.

“What was that?” she asked softly.

“A kiss,” he replied, nonchalant, interlacing his fingers behind her waist and drawing her close. “Don’t you know what a kiss is?”

Ann laughed under her breath. “Jerk.” She playfully hit his chest and he laughed.

Then something caught her eye, far above, in the sky. She looked up, and he noticed it—the wonder in her eyes and that beautiful smile that Ren had silently vowed to protect, no matter the cost.

“It’s snowing again.”

It was, indeed. Soft white flakes rained down from clouds he hadn’t realized had gathered again in the short time they had their snowball fight. They landed on her hair, and her coat, and she reached up to touch one but it melted on her skin. Still, she was grinning gleefully like a child on her birthday.

Ren had never liked winter. Not very much. The cold never agreed with him. A draft through the cracks in the windows or the ceiling would make him shiver to the bones. Yet whenever he was spending his time with Ann, it was as though all the cold had melted away, replaced by this sort of inherent warmth only she could give.

Ann noticed his stare and looked questioningly at him.

Ren smiled a small smile as he quietly said, “I love you.” The touch of pink on her cheeks made his eyes crinkle with happiness.

“I love you, too,” she replied.

Ren’s smile widened at that, and he drew her closer still and planted a soft kiss on her forehead. She wrapped her arms around his back and snuggled against his neck.

“Do you wanna continue building the snowman?” he asked, eyeing their half-done Totoro snowman a ways away.

Ann followed his line of sight, before snuggling deeper into him. “Let me stay like this for a while.”

He tightened his arms around her in reply, pressing his temple against the top of her head.

The tightness in his chest he hadn’t realized had been there was released, and it was as though he could finally breathe again. It had crossed his mind sometimes—the thought of how suffocating his life had been—but with all the things going on in his life this past year, he hadn’t let it dwell for too long. It had never helped. But then there were these days, when the cold settled in and he would remember the life in his parents’ house, living under his father’s strict rule, hearing them fight day in and day out. It would make the cold even more unbearable than usual.

“Hm?” Ann looked up at him, finding him staring far off into space. He met her gaze and saw the concern in her eyes. “What’s wrong?”

It had never occurred to him that he might be lonely. Even now, the word seemed foreign to him. He liked being alone, but that didn’t mean that he was lonely. At least, that was what he had been telling himself. And yet, when he met Ann and all those people who, for once, actually saw him for himself and accepted him for who he was, it was as though a wall he had never known existed broke apart, and all he had wanted to do was to cry.

“Nothing.” He tightened his hold on her. “I’m just glad that you’re here with me right now.”

**~ END ~**

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it :) Please leave kudos/comments if you find this fic to your liking. I would very much love to know what you think. Thank you! ^_^


End file.
